I awoke earlier this morning for some reason…perhaps because it is the dawn of a new month and now closer to Spring. I thought I’d take advantage and walk earlier today. I was on my way in time to see the sunrise at 07.35.
I began at the public dock, standing in the stillness with my daily affirmation, ‘I am filled with gratitude for this new day and all it will hold.’ The pink on the horizon was a little like the ‘Belt of Venus’ phenomenon, I was missing the blue line just beneath the pink though, either way it was a beautiful sight.
As I walked further along I was greeted by various folk taking out their recycling bins ready for collection. The ‘green truck man’ offered his usual wave, squirrels were scampering about in the branches above my head and a ‘fisher’ was heading out onto the ice with his rod, bucket and drill to catch tonight’s dinner.
There is an open field towards the end of the halfway point on this route and it is a perfect spot to catch the sun launching into the sky. Judging by the various paw-prints in the snow, it seems that it was probably an active night for the critters going about their business.
Seeing these teasel heads brought back many childhood memories. My mum always kept one or two dried arrangements in our home and these ‘pricklies’ were always included. I wonder if it’s because they were once grown in the area I grew up in and used in industry. I was born in Derbyshire, England and that was known for its textile manufacturing with wool, cotton and silk mills. Teasels were originally used to ‘tease’ or brush the woven woolen cloth therefore raising the surface fibres – the nap. The uneven nap was then cropped with shears to produce a fine, smooth surface. The teasels were superseded with the gig mill during the industrial revolution allowing the teasels to be returned to lowly dried flower arrangements.
Well, it was too bitterly cold to wait in this spot for more than the ten minutes I was there to watch the sun climb higher, so I began my return to the house. I’m so glad I made the effort to wrap up and get into the biting cold air early this morning. Even though it wasn’t one of those stonking sky-fire sunrises, it had a beauty all of it’s own.